I’ve been visiting these forums for a while now, reading about Tesla experiences from others and finding nothing but praise for what would seem to be a fantastic car maker. Quite honestly, the wonderful things I read every day on here are what pushed me over the edge to finally save up enough to put a down payment on a new Tesla. I was so excited, I’ve been wanting one of these cars for YEARS. I decided a Model X might be a better choice for a family car, thinking down the road. I placed my order in early August and accepted delivery at the end of September. I drove my brand new 60D home from the Fremont factory with the biggest grin on my face. Unfortunately, that’s where it started going downhill.
Not even a week into owning the car, I noticed many manufacturing mistakes. There was a defect in the center console arm rest (minor, but noticeable). The rear passenger window was dramatically misaligned and was sticking out about a half-inch from the rest of the car. Windows were very loudly squeaking as I rolled them up and down, with some clunking when they rolled all the way up. The front passenger window wouldn't roll up sometimes, and on one occasion I was forced to drive my 1.5hr commute in the rain with that window rolled down. Rattles started forming everywhere. Brakes were squeaking incredibly loudly (especially when I had it in reverse), and are only getting worse (service told me this is “normal”). There were paint defects (bumps) on the trunk in the bottom left corner, which service said they had no way of fixing.
From there, things simply became unsafe. The rear-passenger falcon door decided to close on me while I was getting a grocery bag out of the back seat. It didn’t stop closing until it literally knocked me over into the car, with my legs still out the bottom on the ground. My wife tried stopping it but failed. Then it made its “error” noise and stopped as it was on top of me, and finally began moving back up. That was pretty unsettling - what if I was holding a child when this happened? This same door a few days later hit my wife as it was opening and it did not stop. She tried blocking her face with her hand as she was standing in front of it and got pushed back into the car next to us. Luckily she was successful in blocking her face, but it did hurt her hand. Again, what if she was carrying a child?
That was just the start. I then started noticing a pretty bad ghosting effect on my X’s windshield. I went on these forums to see if anybody else had this issue and found that it’s a pretty common issue, but usually for taller people due to the angle of the glass. I’m 5’9”, not considered a “tall” person by any means, and it’s very, very apparent to me. Seems as if some windshields are worse than others. The worst is when it’s at night and raining. The headlight ghosting from oncoming traffic seen in the distance makes it nearly impossible to determine how many cars are coming until they get much closer. Maybe not a huge deal on divided highways, but how dangerous would this be on an undivided, narrow road at night in the rain? Unfortunately, service denied my request of trying to fix this, even though they admitted it’s a known issue and that newer Model X windshields with the new camera setup are manufactured by a different company and would likely not have this issue. What’s worse, the service manager at the Dublin, CA center accused me of only noticing this issue AFTER I read about it on Tesla forums - that I had to know what I was looking for to even notice it. "Some people read about it online and really look for these problems." Quite patronizing, and I was not happy about that.
And then it got worse. After I stopped at the grocery store on my way back from picking up my car from its second service visit this month, I opened the rear passenger falcon door and heard a loud crack as it opened. The door became so badly misaligned that it ripped the chrome off the rear quarter-window (not exactly sure what this window is called, but it's the small window behind the falcon door window). It violently snapped away from the car and bent itself outward. Obviously this is not supposed to happen, but then I realized I’m in even more of a predicament because now the door won’t close because of this misalignment. Am I supposed to drive home with the door open? Do I get it towed back to service? I managed to close it by manually pushing the door down and forcefully re-aligning it as it closed, and immediately drove back to the service center before they closed. This scares the heck out of me - are these doors so unstable and so unaware of their surroundings that they can literally destroy the car itself? I expressed my dissatisfaction and they handed me another loaner (the third this month) as they figured it out.
I paid quite a bit of money for this car. The total price ended up being over $100k, which is fairly common for a Model X. But in the past month of owning it, I’ve had to bring it in for some pretty major defects THREE times. That’s almost once every week. At this point, I’ve been driving loaner cars just as long as I’ve been able to drive my brand new Model X. I didn’t pay $100k to drive beat-up Enterprise loaner cars - I paid $100k for a safe, top-rated luxury car experience. But now, after this horrible experience within the first month of delivery, I strongly regret my decision to buy this Model X. I no longer feel safe around it, and I will absolutely NOT be loading any future children into this car. I simply do not trust it.
I’ve spoken with the Dublin, CA service manager, and he calmly dismissed many of my concerns as minor and unfixable (he was also the one that accused me of only looking for these issues after reading Tesla forums). I’ve escalated my issue to the regional service manager for the Bay Area (Tesla’s strongest, largest market), but have not heard back. And even if he apologizes and promises the issues will be fixed, can you blame me for not trusting him? Especially considering I’ve brought the car in so many times already, mostly for the same issues every time.
I’ve remained calm and polite with every single person in service I’ve spoken with, but I’m afraid that simply isn’t working anymore. I’d love to still be a Tesla owner, and am still completely convinced that I simply got a car that was rushed during production and does not represent the quality of what Tesla normally puts out. So many Tesla owners rave about their experiences, reviews from critics around the world still hold the highest praise for them, and I’m still excited to own one... But I shouldn’t be punished for being delivered a car that shouldn’t have even passed the initial inspection before delivery.
I asked the Dublin service manager how Tesla handles exchanges after so many defects, and he simply said “we don’t do that” and immediately, without a beat, changed the subject. I’m not even asking for a buyback; I simply would like to exchange it for another Tesla of equal value. I’d even pay the difference for a 75D if a 60D isn’t available anymore, which is far less costly for Tesla than fully buying back my current Model X.
I have no choice now but to take this public. I really don’t want to do this - I think Tesla is doing great things for the world, and I really don’t want to do anything to devalue its brand. But more than that, I want my family to feel safe with this car, and I don’t want my hard-earned money to go to waste simply because Tesla delivered a defective car. I shouldn’t have to take responsibility for Tesla’s mistake. The price of one Model X to Tesla is nothing, but to me it’s years and years of saving. I’ll be exercising the California Lemon Law if the public awareness isn’t enough to get Tesla to do the right thing.
I would really love the support and advice from these forums. I understand it’s hard to trust a random forum member that has never posted here before, and I completely understand that hesitation. I'm a reputable person, as I imagine most Tesla owners are. I’m not trying to scam Tesla out of a car. Quite simply, I’m trying to get Tesla to take responsibility for their mistakes.
I’ve sent a version of this letter to Tesla to formally request an exchange before taking things further.
Not even a week into owning the car, I noticed many manufacturing mistakes. There was a defect in the center console arm rest (minor, but noticeable). The rear passenger window was dramatically misaligned and was sticking out about a half-inch from the rest of the car. Windows were very loudly squeaking as I rolled them up and down, with some clunking when they rolled all the way up. The front passenger window wouldn't roll up sometimes, and on one occasion I was forced to drive my 1.5hr commute in the rain with that window rolled down. Rattles started forming everywhere. Brakes were squeaking incredibly loudly (especially when I had it in reverse), and are only getting worse (service told me this is “normal”). There were paint defects (bumps) on the trunk in the bottom left corner, which service said they had no way of fixing.
From there, things simply became unsafe. The rear-passenger falcon door decided to close on me while I was getting a grocery bag out of the back seat. It didn’t stop closing until it literally knocked me over into the car, with my legs still out the bottom on the ground. My wife tried stopping it but failed. Then it made its “error” noise and stopped as it was on top of me, and finally began moving back up. That was pretty unsettling - what if I was holding a child when this happened? This same door a few days later hit my wife as it was opening and it did not stop. She tried blocking her face with her hand as she was standing in front of it and got pushed back into the car next to us. Luckily she was successful in blocking her face, but it did hurt her hand. Again, what if she was carrying a child?
That was just the start. I then started noticing a pretty bad ghosting effect on my X’s windshield. I went on these forums to see if anybody else had this issue and found that it’s a pretty common issue, but usually for taller people due to the angle of the glass. I’m 5’9”, not considered a “tall” person by any means, and it’s very, very apparent to me. Seems as if some windshields are worse than others. The worst is when it’s at night and raining. The headlight ghosting from oncoming traffic seen in the distance makes it nearly impossible to determine how many cars are coming until they get much closer. Maybe not a huge deal on divided highways, but how dangerous would this be on an undivided, narrow road at night in the rain? Unfortunately, service denied my request of trying to fix this, even though they admitted it’s a known issue and that newer Model X windshields with the new camera setup are manufactured by a different company and would likely not have this issue. What’s worse, the service manager at the Dublin, CA center accused me of only noticing this issue AFTER I read about it on Tesla forums - that I had to know what I was looking for to even notice it. "Some people read about it online and really look for these problems." Quite patronizing, and I was not happy about that.
And then it got worse. After I stopped at the grocery store on my way back from picking up my car from its second service visit this month, I opened the rear passenger falcon door and heard a loud crack as it opened. The door became so badly misaligned that it ripped the chrome off the rear quarter-window (not exactly sure what this window is called, but it's the small window behind the falcon door window). It violently snapped away from the car and bent itself outward. Obviously this is not supposed to happen, but then I realized I’m in even more of a predicament because now the door won’t close because of this misalignment. Am I supposed to drive home with the door open? Do I get it towed back to service? I managed to close it by manually pushing the door down and forcefully re-aligning it as it closed, and immediately drove back to the service center before they closed. This scares the heck out of me - are these doors so unstable and so unaware of their surroundings that they can literally destroy the car itself? I expressed my dissatisfaction and they handed me another loaner (the third this month) as they figured it out.
I paid quite a bit of money for this car. The total price ended up being over $100k, which is fairly common for a Model X. But in the past month of owning it, I’ve had to bring it in for some pretty major defects THREE times. That’s almost once every week. At this point, I’ve been driving loaner cars just as long as I’ve been able to drive my brand new Model X. I didn’t pay $100k to drive beat-up Enterprise loaner cars - I paid $100k for a safe, top-rated luxury car experience. But now, after this horrible experience within the first month of delivery, I strongly regret my decision to buy this Model X. I no longer feel safe around it, and I will absolutely NOT be loading any future children into this car. I simply do not trust it.
I’ve spoken with the Dublin, CA service manager, and he calmly dismissed many of my concerns as minor and unfixable (he was also the one that accused me of only looking for these issues after reading Tesla forums). I’ve escalated my issue to the regional service manager for the Bay Area (Tesla’s strongest, largest market), but have not heard back. And even if he apologizes and promises the issues will be fixed, can you blame me for not trusting him? Especially considering I’ve brought the car in so many times already, mostly for the same issues every time.
I’ve remained calm and polite with every single person in service I’ve spoken with, but I’m afraid that simply isn’t working anymore. I’d love to still be a Tesla owner, and am still completely convinced that I simply got a car that was rushed during production and does not represent the quality of what Tesla normally puts out. So many Tesla owners rave about their experiences, reviews from critics around the world still hold the highest praise for them, and I’m still excited to own one... But I shouldn’t be punished for being delivered a car that shouldn’t have even passed the initial inspection before delivery.
I asked the Dublin service manager how Tesla handles exchanges after so many defects, and he simply said “we don’t do that” and immediately, without a beat, changed the subject. I’m not even asking for a buyback; I simply would like to exchange it for another Tesla of equal value. I’d even pay the difference for a 75D if a 60D isn’t available anymore, which is far less costly for Tesla than fully buying back my current Model X.
I have no choice now but to take this public. I really don’t want to do this - I think Tesla is doing great things for the world, and I really don’t want to do anything to devalue its brand. But more than that, I want my family to feel safe with this car, and I don’t want my hard-earned money to go to waste simply because Tesla delivered a defective car. I shouldn’t have to take responsibility for Tesla’s mistake. The price of one Model X to Tesla is nothing, but to me it’s years and years of saving. I’ll be exercising the California Lemon Law if the public awareness isn’t enough to get Tesla to do the right thing.
I would really love the support and advice from these forums. I understand it’s hard to trust a random forum member that has never posted here before, and I completely understand that hesitation. I'm a reputable person, as I imagine most Tesla owners are. I’m not trying to scam Tesla out of a car. Quite simply, I’m trying to get Tesla to take responsibility for their mistakes.
I’ve sent a version of this letter to Tesla to formally request an exchange before taking things further.
